Lecture 6: Engineering as Social Experimentation II Chapter 3, Martin

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Lecture 6 Engineering as Social Experimentation
II(Chapter 3, Martin Schinzinger, Ethics in
Engineering)

• ELEC4011 Ethics Electrical Engineering Practice
• Hugh Outhred

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Review of lecture 5

• Engineering is a form of social experimentation
• Innovation with social environmental impacts
• Uncertainty risk in outcomes
• Stakeholders have a right to informed consent
• Information, decision making opportunity
  capability
• Problems in implementation
• Lack of a control group corporate pressures
• Difficulty in identifying stakeholders
• Irreducible uncertainty

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The ethics of social experimentation(professional
ism)

• Conscientiousness
• Respect for stakeholders rights
• reasonable safety informed consent
• Skill expertise
• Predicting outcomes identifying risks
• Designing to maximise net benefits
• Protecting the rights of the disadvantaged
• Comprehensive perspective
• Recruit expertise in other disciplines as
  required
• Utilise disinterested decision makers or advisers

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The ethics of social experimentation
(professionalism)

• Accountability
• Accept responsibility for outcomes, eg
• Concern about hazardous wiring on aircraft
• Invite external review prior to sign-off
• Implement corporate practices to support
  accountability
• Moral autonomy
• Careful reflection versus ethical
  conventionalism
• Threatened by strong corporate hierarchies

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Laws codes

• Legal framework sets the outer boundary
• Justice- punishment, restitution, structural
  change
• Designed to protect equity
• Industry codes reflect corporate interests
• Often to mollify unfavourable public opinion, eg
• Real estate, insurance sales, banking
• At their best, professional codes reflect the
  public interest
• Can provide a check-list when considering an
  engineering experiment

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Positive roles of codes of ethics

• Inspiration guidance for professionals
• Sustain an ethical standard in the profession
• Practical support for ethical actions
• Reduce the risks of victimisation
• Education mutual understanding (trust)
• Between the profession the public
• Maintain public image (avoid regulation)
• Deterrence discipline (paralegal proceedings)
• To investigate rule on alleged unethical
  activities

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Limitations of codes of ethics

• Protect the status quo (ethical conventionalism)
• Codes (like laws) tend to lag behind innovation
• Restrict and/or stifle dissent
• Protect the profession from competition
• Now illegal under the Trade Practices Act
• Internal contradictions between tenets of a code
• A common problem with professional codes
• Generality or vagueness of wording
• Cannot be drafted with a particular situation in
  mind

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Example the IEEE code of ethics(www.ieee.org)

• 1. To accept responsibility in making engineering
  decisions consistent with the safety, health and
  welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly
  factors that might endanger the public or the
  environment
• 2. To avoid real or perceived conflicts of
  interest whenever possible, and to disclose them
  to affected parties when they do exist
• 3. To be honest and realistic in stating claims
  or estimates based on available data
• 4. To reject bribery in all its forms
• 5. To improve the understanding of technology,
  its appropriate application, and potential
  consequences

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The IEEE code of ethics continued

• 6. To maintain improve our technical competence
  and to undertake technological tasks for others
  only if qualified by training or experience, or
  after full disclosure of pertinent limitations
• 7. To seek, accept and offer honest criticism of
  technical work, to acknowledge and correct
  errors, and to credit properly the contributions
  of others
• 8. To treat fairly all persons regardless of such
  factors as race, religion, gender, disability,
  age or national origin
• 9. To avoid injuring others, their property,
  reputation, or employment by false or malicious
  action
• 10 To assist colleagues and co-workers in their
  professional development and to support them in
  following this code of ethics
• Note no mention of responsibility to employer or
  code enforcement

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Legal pressures on engineers

• Objectives
• deter poor practice encourage innovation
• Balance between
• Individual corporate rights versus public
  welfare
• Heavy-handed regulation versus deregulation
• Consensus outcomes versus adversarial litigation
• Guidelines standards versus innovation
• The key legislation is the Trade Practices Act
• Goods must be fit for their intended purpose

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Summary

• Engineering as social experimentation
• Awareness of uncertainty of consequences
• Stakeholder rights imply professional duties
• Stakeholder rights
• reasonable safety and informed consent
• Professional duties
• Conscientiousness
• Comprehensive perspective
• Moral autonomy
• Accountability

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Summary continued

• Motivators for professional duties
• Codes of ethics (incentive-based)
• Legal framework (penalty-based)
• Some unresolved questions
• Acceptable levels of safety risk
• Professional duties versus employer authority
• In the final analysis, each case on its merits
• No substitute for moral autonomy
• Professional judgement ethical reflective
  equilibrium